Wetherspoons releases the list of the 22 pubs it’s selling off

The Wetherspoons chain has updated the list of the pubs it’s planning to sell off. JD Wetherspoon, run by the businessman Tim Martin, has 22 sites up for sale, after already getting rid of 28 this year, according to Nottinghamshire Live.

Martin has said that the move has been ‘misinterpreted’ as a money-saving move, despite the hospitality industry facing unprecedented increases in costs across the board, in everything from food production to energy costs to glassware.

Though last year, it did say that the putting up for sale of 32 pubs from its 827 sites across the UK was a ‘commercial decision’. The company has nonetheless reported increased sales, said to have been helped by easing energy bills.

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The stock market listed pub chain saw sales increase 11.5% year on year in the 10 weeks so far of its final trading quarter, and are up 12.9% in the financial year to date. It added that profits for the financial year to July will be in line with market expectations.

The share price of Wetherspoons is up 43.5% year to day, though it’s still down some 50% from pre-pandemic highs.

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said: “As a result of a continued improvement in sales and a slightly reduced expectation for cost increases, for example energy costs, the company anticipates an improved outcome for the next financial year, and anticipates an outcome for the first half of 2023-24 approximately in line with the second half of 2022-23.”

The pub chain has 35 sites across the region. There are nine in Manchester, six in Trafford, two in Salford, three in Rochdale, two in Stockport, two in Tameside, two in Oldham, two in Bury, two in Bolton